POLITICS

Dole Plans Bus Tour Through New Jersey

Published: October 2, 1996

TRENTON, Oct. 1—
In what would be his first bus tour in this campaign season, Bob Dole plans to roll through New Jersey on Monday and Tuesday in hopes of building support among swing voters and securing his Republican base in the state, campaign aides said.

Although recent surveys -- the Star-Ledger/Eagleton and Quinnipiac polls -- show Mr. Dole trailing President Clinton by double-digit margins in New Jersey, Dole campaign aides say Mr. Dole is doing better in the state than the polls suggest. This will be Mr. Dole's second visit to the state since the Republican National Convention in August.

''From the beginning, our campaign has been based on the tax cut plan,'' said Dean R. Armandroff, Mr. Dole's campaign director in New Jersey, ''and despite what others have written, New Jersey voters will embrace the plan because of their positive experience with the Whitman tax cut.'' Gov. Christine Todd Whitman is expected to join Mr. Dole for most of the bus tour, which is expected to begin in Ocean County and wind through Middlesex, Bergen, Morris, Somerset and Mercer Counties.